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Cattle Mutilations
Cattle mutilation is a UFO-related phenomenon that began in the late 1960s with the same modus operandi. Cattle were killed and the body left on the ground in various conditions. Appearently, the carcass has been totally drained of blood. Some explain all with alien experiments.
By Michele Bugliaro Goggia - last modified: April 12, 2007 1:13 PM
Cattle mutilations were a UFO-related phenomenon that began in the late 1960s with the same modus operandi. Cattle were killed and the body left on the ground in various conditions. Appearently, it's been found that the carcass has been totally drained of blood, no trace of blood being found anywhere on the ground around the body. Various incisions would also be found on the body, so precise some UFO researchers think only a laser could have performed. Furthermore, the carcasses featured various missing parts, once more showing laser cuts. UFOs have been linked to these mutilations since they have been sighted at the same time, in the same area where the mutilated carcasses have been found.
The first researcher to uncover the ongoing cattle mutilations phenomenon has been journalist Linda Moulton Howe, graduated at Stanford University with a Masters Degree in Communication. She clearly claims there is a mystery in which aliens and UFOs play a role.
Although no official estimate exists, generally accepted figures indicate that forty thousand recorded cases have occurred in North America since Lady. Others have also been recorded in Japan, Argentina, Bolivia, Europe, Australia and Canada.
The first recorded case of cattle mutilation in USA happened on September 1967, near Alamosa in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. An Appaloosa specimen (Appaloosa breed being introduced in America towards 1806) named Lady was found dead and mutilated. Both her head and neck were completely stripped of flesh.
A strange harvest
Following the pro UFO theory, mutilations were different from accidental or predatory death for several reasons: the way in which the flesh has been removed from the body. Cauterization (the burning of the body to remove or close a part of it) seems to be typical of mutilations.
Unlike animal attack, the flesh, adjacent the area where it has been removed, were smooth and clean as if cut with a searing or laser scalpel. Not to mention the removed body areas: mainly the sexual, anterior digestive tract and sensory organs are affected. No predator differentiates so precisely. Still, no tracks of any kind were found around the mutilation site, except, sometimes, tripod marks. Also, no carrion eaters will touch the mutilated cow even though it has plenty of flesh still left to be eaten.
In some cases, tissue samples were examined by well-established diagnostic labs. Histology (the study of tissue sectioned as a thin slice) performed on over thirty skin samples from the excision lines by Dr. Altshuller, a Colorado pathologist, revealed lesions suggesting overheating. Although there were no data on the degree of autolysis (the digestion of an organism or parts of it by its own enzymes.) on the samples, collagen and hemoglobin were significantly changed in the proximity of the excision. In a 1991 report, the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory of Corvallis (Oregon State University) determined that skin sections from a suspected mutilated steer showed lesions consistent with electro-surgical excision. Some have suggested the use of laser. Trouble is, laser technology was not widespread available when the mutilations started. In "An Alien Harvest" (1989), Linda Howe states the following:
"for the first time that tissue gathered from mutilator cuts in Arkansas on March 11, 1989, revealed the following characteristics under microscopic examination: 1) The line is pinpoint thin; 2) The line was subjected to high heat, probably 300 degrees Fahrenheit or above, leaving a hard and darkened edge; 3) The cuts were made rapidly, probably in two minutes or less, because there is no inflammatory cell destruction which typically begins in a few minutes after any trauma to tissue."
To be honest, cuts reaching such precision would require heavy instruments. This poses two problems:
- no one has ever spot these instruments
- the mutilations are performed in remote areas
By attributing cattle mutilations to aliens, UFO researchers commonly think these aliens are performing unspecified experiments. Some claim cattle is food for them. Others talk about bio-experiments conducted by the US Government, pointing at black helicopters. Wild imagination runs hot, then...
Explanations
As with UFO sightings, the aura of mystery has grown the phenomenon bigger. Scientists involved with researching animal mutilations have tried to provide logical explanations. In some cases though, they were contradicted by the evidence gathered by police investigators. Commonly accepted factors such as natural causes, predators, and scavengers are the top explanations.
A satanic group-like could be a more reasonable hypothesis. Who else could be interested, this macabre way, in cattle? Believe, some people are this sadistic. A disturbed person is perfectly able to mutilate cattle. Nonetheless, who'd work on cattle in the air, and even more: why dropping them back? If a Satanic explanation may not be true in each case, the alien theory is also not yet certain, not at all!
Despite the fact some official investigators have always lived close to cattles all their lives, they have declared having never seen the features often attributed to cattle mutilations. They concluded that at least a part of the animal mutilations were "definitely not made by predators". In those cases, there are traces all around, like blood, hair, skin portions, body parts and foot prints. Even today, some animal mutilation cases are simply classified as unexplainable. Lack of evidence? Maybe: such cases require a quick reaction by farmers, for authorities and veterinarians to reach the place and investigate before the original "scène du délit" endures changes of time, weather or bacteria. George E. Onet writes:
"Some evidence suggests that the mutilation takes place after the animal has died. Otherwise, the body and the surrounding areas would be stained with a great deal of blood because if the animal were alive, the heart would continue to pump blood through the open vessels. Reports reveal that compared to the severity of the wounds, blood traces are scarce.
Natural causes of death in animals include: infectious diseases, severe accidents, poisoning, bloat, birth-related accidents, predators, electrocution, etc. which can be diagnosed through macroscopic examination and laboratory analyses. In most mutilation cases, it has been reported that animals died suddenly. This is based on the testimony that they were seen by the owner in good health and body condition shortly before being found dead."
What about missing blood? Here the story becomes interesting: if blooding occurs before death, internal organs appear paler. Thing is, often no sign of an artificial action of draining is found. Yet, blood is missing. Onet states:
"Some reports have stated that blood was missing from the body or was only present in small amounts. In 1971, an Idaho veterinarian necropsied a purportedly mutilated horse and found that all internal organs, including the heart and the lungs, had been completely desiccated. At necropsy, by compressing parenchymal tissues such as liver, lung, and kidney, one would expect that a certain amount of blood is expressed even if post-mortem coagulation or hemolysis had occurred. This is true under normal conditions when animals die without being exsanguinated. If massive ante-mortem bleeding had taken place, these organs would appear pale and the amount of blood obtained by compression is significantly reduced. But if there is no indication of extensive internal or external hemorrhage which is capable of draining blood from the circulatory system, then the lack of blood looks peculiar."
The Rommel report
A sceptical approach has been written by Kenneth Rommel on May, 1979, when he stepped into the cattle mutilations scene. For 28 years Rommel worked as an FBI agent, specializing in counter-intelligence and major crimes such as bank robbery. In his report, he states that Operation Animal Mutilation had five objectives:
- To determine the reliability of the information on which the grant was based. This entailed gathering as much information as possible about the cases reported in New Mexico prior to May 1979...
- To determine the cause of as many mutilations as possible, especially those reported in New Mexico...
- To determine if livestock mutilations as described constitute a major law enforcement problem...
- If these mutilations do constitute a major law enforcement problem, to determine the scope of the problem and to offer recommendations on how to deal with it...
- If it is shown that the mutilation phenomenon is not a law enforcement problem, to recommend that no further law enforcement investigations be funded.
In his report, Rommel heavily debunks many of the notions regarding mysterious mutilations. He writes that he was well aware of the controversial nature of the subject at the time he launched his own investigation. These mutilations have been variously linked with UFOs, environmental testing, biological experiments, and nuclear activities. A few individuals, however, including some very knowledgeable veterinarians, have continually maintained that the real mutilators are predators and scavengers. This theory, he soon learned, was one of the least popular.
"In almost all of the cases he examined, a completely natural cause of death was established. The organs that disappear are composed of just the sort of soft tissues that carnivorous scavengers are known to snack on."
The "surgically precise" cuts that were so often reported were in fact quite jagged when viewed up close. As to the absence of blood, Rommel notes that such a claim is rarely confirmed by a necropsy [animal autopsy] report. Rommel discovered that it is common for the blood of deceased animals to settle into the lower parts of the corpse. Any blood on the carcass or on the ground is quickly consumed by scavengers.
I think the cattle mutilation mystery has been overestimated. While in most cases Howe's opinion is out of place, I don't deny there may be in fact cases that don't fit into the Rommel report.
external links
Cattle mutilations at Skeptic's Dictionary
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